International Conference on the History of Cartography
CONFERENCE BY CONFERENCE SURVEY

6th International Conference on the History of Cartography
September 7-11, 1975  Greenwich

Held at the National Maritime Museum in celebration of the 300th anniversary of the founding of the Royal Observatory at Greenwich. Principal coordinators were E. Campbell, S. Tyacke, H. Wallis, J. Harley, T. H. Adams, Merle Abbott. Attendance estimates vary from over 160 from 15 countries to some 200 from 23 countries, and conference languages were English and French.

There were six themes: "Techniques for studying old maps," "Documentary records of the use of maps, charts, and globes," "The evolution of the marine chart and sailing directions," "Dissemination of cartographical ideas," "Changing techniques of surveying, map and chart production," "Urban mapping."

The exhibition "300 Years of Astronomy at Greenwich" at the museum (catalog: Greenwich Observatory: 300 Years of Astronomy, ed. C. A. Ronan (London, 1975) coincided with the conference, as did an exhibition at the British Library on the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War (catalog: The American War of Independence, 1775-83 (London, 1975)), of which the ICHC participants enjoyed a private viewing.

There was an evening hydrofoil excursion down the Thames to Mapsellers, a new dealer, and also a train trip to Oxford.

There were 27 papers, with full texts distributed on arrival of guests, and a booklet of abstracts was published. Of the papers, eight were published full in Imago Mundi, 28 (1976) (Kish, Ravenhill, Robinson, Satzinger, Schilder, Teixeira da Mota, Vorsey, Walters).

Papers 6th ICHC

Ahmad, S. M. on: Islamic cartography in the ninth century A.D.

Andrews, J. H. on: the purposes of cartometric anaysis of old maps.

Babicz, Józef. on: Nicolas Germanus's atlas of 1473.

Baynes-Cope, Arthur. on: the scientific examination of the physical and chemical composition of the materials of old maps and charts.

Destombes, Marcel. Quelques rares cartes nautiques néerlandaises du XVIIe siècle. (15pp) (This does not seem to accord with Tyacke's description of the paper given, in which, she says, "Destombes described his identification of four Dutch eight-sheet wall maps of the continents . . . [and] also communicated the results of some of his discoveries in the library of the Sorbonne.")